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Tips for Car Shopping

After we get our official driver’s license from the Department of Motor Vehicles, our car plays a big role in our life. As much as we need cars to get us around to places, buying one can be a difficult and a time-consuming process because of the huge selection available in the market; furthermore, this process is probably the first big investment decision we need to make in our life. From 2008 to 2010, I worked as a vehicle sales/lease consultant at San Francisco Honda. Our sales team received training on how to help customers select the best fitting vehicle and we had mandatory weekly meetings to discuss possible improvements on the selection process. I would like to share some of this information as well as reviewing various vehicles in my blog, so car shoppers can get a better and clearer direction about the cars they are really looking for.

Some of the common questions I heard from my customers were: “What is the engine size of this car?”, “Does it come with leather seat?”, “How many air bags in this car?”, and “What is the gas mileage?”. Based on these common questions and sales records, our sales team summed up that car shoppers have different buying intentions based on four primary categories: performance, quality, safety, and utility. Some shoppers may emphasize concerns in all four categories, or they may only focus on just one or two. By identifying the buying intention and keeping a budget plan in mind, car shoppers can significantly narrow down their selection; therefore, they don’t need to waste time on unnecessary research. For example, if I want a sporty car that has good horsepower and I have a budget of about 25,000 dollars limit, then I would look for cars like the Volkswagen GTI base model or Mazda Speed3 model because they match my criteria; therefore, all I have to do from here is to test drive them and pick from these two.

In the following days, I will review one vehicle on each blog. Each review will be based on the four primary buying intentions, I will be introducing a particular car’s mechanical performance, special quality features, safety ratings, and useful functions that come with it. On top of that, I will also include the manufacturer suggested retail price of each vehicle as well as the true cost of ownership. With this information, my blogs may serve as a mini guide for your next car purchase.

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2 comments on “Tips for Car Shopping”

If you are a first time buyer, I would recommend a used compact sedan like the Civic, or Corolla because you don’t need to worry about depreciation and insurance is usually less expensive on used cars.